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Melbourne Heart can no longer afford for the idle speculation linking the club to David Beckham to be just that – speculation. They need him. Badly.
Maybe even that’s understating it. The club’s very future may, perhaps, depend on his signature.
We all know that expecting big-name marquee stars to act as cure-alls and problem solvers is a silly, silly thing to do.
And it hurts to say this, because Melbourne Heart are an extremely likeable club – probably the most popular ‘second team’ in the A-League.
But without Beckham, the red and white outfit might be hurtling towards a fate that was perhaps eerily dictated by their selection of a Stoke-inspired home shirt – mediocrity and irrelevance.
Or worse still, extinction.
Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that – any fan with a soul shudders at the thought of a club closing its doors.
And, besides, we should really have gotten all our fascination with morbid grave-dancing out of our system when North Queensland and Gold Coast were cut.
But the truth is the Heart’s troubles have been bubbling under the surface for some time now – only disguised by Melbourne derbies, Clive Palmer’s endless jibber-jabber and the romanticism of the Del Piero era.
Yesterday’s terrific article from jamesb once again put forward the question that has been asked of Melbourne Heart since day one, but never really answered – who on earth are they?
What does this club mean? Who does it represent? Does anyone really know?
There are a few points of difference, we’re told. One – they’re not Melbourne Victory, which is actually a pretty good start.
People hate Victory and Kevin Muscat and their combined arrogance and so by positioning themselves as the nice guys of Melbourne, the Heart curried a bit of favour from neutrals from day one.
That, and the club’s commitment to playing ‘attractive football’.
What that is, exactly, remains unclear – but it is highly likely Ange Postecoglou will reach that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow before John Aloisi does.
Just by signing Postecoglou, the Heart’s arch-rivals blew that so-called advantage to smithereens. So there’s that gone. And neutrals don’t pay the bills.
What else… Young players? No, Newcastle have that covered at the minute – besides, you can’t sign Vince Grella and Richard Garcia and then claim ‘academy’.
Location? No. Anything socio-economic? Not yet. AAMI Park? Now we’re clutching at straws.
When the Heart joined the league, there was skepticism from the outset that they weren’t different enough to the behemoth that is Victory.
That skepticism was hushed by assurances that there’s a growth strategy in place and that crowds will eventually grow to an average of 10,000 in three or five or however many years and so on and so forth.
Well, after this past weekend, it’s pretty clear to see that if there is any growth at all, it is not coming quickly enough, with the expiry date of their ‘sweetheart’ stadium deal at Swan Street is fast approaching.
Especially not when Postecoglou is across town fiddling with a false nine system that is showing glimpses of stunning functionality.
So what now?
The Heart need not be a powerhouse but they can’t survive like this. If crowds don’t pick up immediately, if not sooner, then their stadium deal will eventually eat them whole.
It’s okay to offset that every now and then with the transfer fee from the sale of a rising star – but then Melburnians can see through that, and the cut-price appointment of Aloisi, as an admission of defeat.
And we’ve seen what can happen to the A-League when the poisonous stench of ‘uncool’ left behind by low four-figure crowds hangs about.
Which brings us back to David Beckham, still one of the world’s most marketable athletes and the very embodiment of cool.
It isn’t smart to pin your hopes on a marquee but maybe this is the Heart’s best and only opportunity to bridge the gap with Melbourne Victory.
There just isn’t enough room for the Heart to tell its own story with the suffocating influence of the other mob in town.
With Beckham in red and white, however, the whole planet will suddenly be interested in what goes on at La Trobe University.
That wouldn’t fix everything. And yes, people will probably stop caring the minute he jets back to the US.
But what it would do is give Melbourne Heart a voice that it otherwise would not have and an opportunity to bring about the growth that was promised but never delivered.
Then it has, at least, a chance. A foot in the door. The alternative is frightening.
Without Becks, the rich in Melbourne – Victory – will get richer.
And the Heart will either hold onto a tiny corner of the market and become perennial off-field grafters, or disappear altogether.
Neither is a deserving outcome for a club run so well and founded with such admirable intentions.
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